Gabriel Bortoleto ‘not proud’ of Lap 1 spin in China as Nico Hulkenberg rues impact of early damage on ‘very tricky’ day

It was a tough day for Kick Sauber at the Chinese Grand Prix, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg both suffering early incidents that hampered their races en route to P14 and P15 respectively.

Bortoleto had lined up on the back row of the grid for his second race weekend in F1 and, after trying to find a way past the Haas of Ollie Bearman during the opening lap, spun into the gravel, forcing him to make an early pit stop.

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The Brazilian eventually finished ahead of his team mate after crossing the line in 17th – which subsequently became 14th following a trio of post-race disqualifications – and, despite his early spin, was able to take some positives from the event.

“[It was] a shame from Lap 1 – obviously [I’m] not proud of what happened there,” Bortoleto explained later on. “I went to overtake Ollie and then got too much rubber on the outside of the track.

Bortoleto: ‘Not proud’ of what happened in lap 1 with early spin.

“I was in the dirty line and I lost the rear, couldn’t keep it and, you know, Lap 1 [there was] a lot of the turbulence as well, [I] did a mistake and spun.

“But, to be honest, we know a bit where we are and I was happy to not get trapped in the gravel and be able to run the whole race, and experience a bit a dry race in Formula 1 – it was my actually first full dry race here, so understanding our pace and how we were comparing to the others, that was not bad. It was good for learning managing the tyres and everything else.”

Pushed on whether he felt disappointed at the squad’s overall performance in comparison to the likes of Haas and Racing Bulls, the 20-year-old added: “Yeah, I think it was difficult to beat them anyway – even if I stayed on track, maybe [I could have gained] one position in front of [Jack] Doohan, maybe.

“But, to be honest, it’s difficult to say. Obviously I wanted to be a bit in the fight, to have a bit of fun, but it is what it is.”

Hulkenberg also faced a challenging start to his race in Shanghai. After starting from P12 on the grid, the German lost a significant number of positions following a moment through Turn 3, which also caused damage to the floor of his C45 as well as dropping him down to P19.

Reflecting on what happened after ending the race in 15th, Hulkenberg said: “Out of Turn 3, I just completely lost the rear of the car almost, almost tanked it but I went wide at the exit of Turn 3, through the gravel and lost all the positions basically, but also more frustratingly damaged the floor.

Hulkenberg frustrated after early spin at turn 3 in Shanghai

“I lost load after that, which obviously made things very tricky today, so unfortunately that was the beginning of the end very early today.”

While he acknowledged that it was difficult to take many learnings from the afternoon given the damage to the car, the 37-year-old was happy to gain more experience at the wheel of his new challenger following his switch from Haas.

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“I think still with the damage, the team was giving me updates every now and then, and I think pace-wise here and there it wasn’t too bad actually considering the damage we carried,” Hulkenberg conceded.

“I need to look at it, but still good to get the mileage in. Still early days with the new car, so still happy to have finished.”